The yield of a crop of potatoes, the cost of growing and the consequent profits, vary not only with conditions, but with individual operators under similar conditions. In common with every other phase of agriculture, and everything else in the world, the individuality of the man in charge is the most potent factor.

The price is a proposition that the individual grower has no control of and varies with the world's supply and demand.

Average yields do not represent the possibilities of the business, and are not fair to the industry. The best growers always produce crops far in excess of the average for a district or a community. The average producer of potatoes is not a potato grower in the strict sense of the term - he is simply a farmer growing potatoes and giving little, if any, thought or study to the "reasons why" for various operations.

The estimates and figures which follow regarding prices of the various operations and the profits in potato growing show the possibilities and probabilities in various sections. The best grower may make larger profits than some of these - poor growers much less.

In the Twin Falls country in southern Idaho the yield of potatoes is from 100 to 700 bushels per acre. The cost of producing a 150-bushel crop is estimated as follows:

If potatoes are worth 50 cents a bushel, this crop would sell for $75, leaving a profit of $30.50 per acre, not deducting rent or interest or taxes.

If, however, the grower produces a 600-bushel crop, the cost of producing (figuring twice as much seed and increased cost of the operations) would be about $95.75. The crop would sell (at 50 cents a bushel) for $300, leaving a profit of $204.25.

In their work on "Potato Culture" (published by A. I. Root Co. Medina, Ohio), T. B. Terry of Hudson, Ohio, and A. I. Root of Medina, Ohio, estimate the cost as follows:

If the crop makes 250 bushels and sells for 40 cents a bushel, the profit will be as follows:

Lawrence G. Dodge, scientific Assistant in the Bureau of Plant Industry, gives, in "Farmers' Bulletin 465" of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, the following:

The accompanying table represents the usual expense of growing an acre of potatoes in Aroostook County, Maine, and in many parts of Michigan and Wisconsin. In fact, the second column of figures will represent the expense put into growing the crop in most localities where potato growing is carried on, on a less expensive and through-going basis:

*For beetles only.

The more expensive method of growing potatoes usually gives a yield of 275 bushels or more to the acre. Unless an application of barnyard manure is made in addition to the expense estimated, at an added cost of from $5 to $10 per acre, the less expensive method rarely produces more than 125 bushels per acre and in a great many instances decidely less than 100 bushels per acre. The increase in yield as a result of the more costly method is sufficient to more than pay the difference in cost, supposing potatoes to sell as low as 33 1/3 cents a bushel. One hundred and twenty-five bushels per acre grown at a cost of $15 per acre and sold at 33 1/3 cents a bushel yield a net profit of $26.66 per acre. Two hundred and seventy-five bushels per acre grown at a cost of $60 per acre and sold at 33 1/3 cents per bushel yield a net profit of $31.66 per acre. The second profit is $5 more per acre than the first.

A farmer in Van Buren County, Mich., states that his potato crop, mostly marketed in the fall, sold at an average price of 44 cents a bushel for a period of ten years. At the latter price the more expensive method of culture would yield a profit of $61 per acre, against $40 from the cheaper method. Furthermore, some of the leading potato dealers of the North have stated emphatically that a better quality of potatoes is normally obtained with large yields than with small."

The dean of the College of Agriculture of the University of Maine, Dr. William D. Hurd, says:

Many questions are asked as to the cost of growing an acre of potatoes. So many things, different circumstances, facilities for carrying on labor, kind of season, etc., enter into the problem of , cost in such varying proportions that it is almost impossible to give statistics which will prove of much value to others. From records for several years on the college farm at Orono, the cost of growing a ten-acre field of potatoes is about as follows: Man and team labor are reckoned at $3.50 per day, extra men at $1.50 per day.

The E. L. Cleveland Company of Houlton, Maine, one of the largest growers and dealers of seed potatoes in America, makes the following estimate of the cost of growing an acre of potatoes:

Much depends on the weather conditions as to the cost of applying Bordeaux mixture, Paris green, cost of cultivation, labor and general net results.

The above estimates may be regarded the average for a series of years."

Mr. L. F. Shanklin of Lompoc, Cal., estimates the cost of producing an acre of potatoes as follows:

His average crop is:

The cost of producing one acre of potatoes on the farm of W. Dennis & Sons, Kirton, Lincolnshire, England, is:

W. Dennis & Sons grow 3,000 acres annually and these figures are an average for that acreage.

Prof. L. A. Merrill of the Utah Agricultural College reports that the cost of growing according to Mr. W. F. Harper of Smithfield, Utah, is as follows:

To this should be added interest on the money invested in the land which would vary with the price of land, and also taxes on the land; these two items will probably average $10.